A dispute before the Florida Supreme Court looks like it could play by the book, specifically Black’s Law Dictionary. At the heart of the case is a question on whether insurers have a duty to intervene on a client’s behalf during pre-litigation efforts involving construction defect claims.
But it was the dictionary—and its definition of a legal “proceeding”—that took center stage during oral arguments Thursday, as one side sought to persuade the high court these pre-suit claims constituted judicial actions, and the other insisted they didn’t.
